It’s time for another debut author interview, this time with Yvonne Battle-Felton, a fellow Northern Writers’ Award winner whose book is due out very soon.
Tell us a little about your book and how you came to write it
Remembered is the story of a mother whose son has been beaten by police and charged with a crime he may or may not have committed. It is a story about haunting, motherhood, identity, oppression, and the legacy of slavery as much as it is a story of family, secrets, and hope. It’s a framed novel that explores twenty-four years of America’s slave-holding past over twenty-four hours in the 1910 present. Throughout the narrative Spring, with the help of her dead sister, relives the past in order to lead her dying son home.
Remembered started with questions about how families might have reconnected after the Emancipation. I researched the novel as part of my Creative Writing PhD. A lot of research in various forms went in to writing this book. Honestly, I was hoping to write a novel with a happy ending. But, history kept repeating itself. In some respects it’s my advocacy. It’s also very much about mothering. I explore what motherhood might be like and how far a mother might be pushed before she pushes back. How far she’s willing to go to protect her child.
It’s the story I needed to write at the time I needed to write it most.
What makes your book unique?
I aimed to make the characters human. They are flawed, loving, idealistic. They are capable of a range of emotions. There is joy, sorrow, pain, anger, and, I hope, an undercurrent of love flowing through the narrative. Love and stories are all my characters have and I hope I’ve been generous with both.
Your book will soon be in readers’ hands. Which part of being published are you most excited about?
Every part of it! I’ve decided to be giddily excited about every single part of the publishing experience. I’m celebrating and enjoying everything: having the manuscript rejected (quite a few of those), accepted, reviewed, edited, re-edited, revealed, printed, reviewed, read, re-read, re-printed (not necessarily in that order).
What has been the most challenging part of your journey to publication?
Developing patience. There is a lot of waiting in publishing. That’s not true. There is a lot of doing in publishing. My agent, Elise Dillsworth, is always busy championing her writers looking for opportunities for us. Likewise, my publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove has a team of professionals who balance 1,001 tasks for all of their authors at any given time. I had to learn that just because I don’t hear anything, doesn’t mean there isn’t anything happening. So I’m learning to develop patience and to keep myself busy with other projects.
Do you have a writing mentor, or someone who has influenced your work?
I was fortunate to have had the lovely, talented, and patient Jenn Ashworth as my thesis supervisor. Jenn was my first reader. She asked questions and gave feedback that helped influence my writing and the way I think about what’s possible. I did my PhD at Lancaster University. The program gave me access to a lot of supportive, talented, engaging writers. Among others, I look to Jenn as a role model for setting goals and redefining limits; my friend Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi for building relationships and supporting a writing community; and my friend Naomi Kruger for remembering to slow down from time to time.
If there was one book that you could have written, other than your own, what would it be and why?
Every story has its own writer. I don’t know how else to answer this question.
What advice would you give to other writers hoping to publish a novel?
Join or create a writers’ community. Participating in a community gives you access to readers with a wealth of experiences. Networks are great for sharing information and contacts, celebrating successes, and processing rejections. Also, please remember that publishing is a business. It isn’t personal. When an agent tells you they can’t sell your work; believe them. When a publisher tells you your book does not fit their list or they can’t fall in your love with your characters, or they can’t get the team on board, take their word for it. If someone tells you they aren’t the right one for you or your book, they are right. Your book doesn’t need every publisher to fall in love with it; it just needs the right ones to.
Is there a debut novel you’re particularly looking forward to reading in 2019?
How much time do you have? I’m looking forward to Season Butler’s Cygnet. I’ve read the proof and loved it. I’m also looking forward to My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Finally, and not a debut but I’m looking forward to reading Jennifer Makumbi’s Manchester Happened.
Find out more
Remembered on Goodreads
Remembered on Amazon
Author bio
Yvonne is an American writer living in Lancashire. A writer of fiction and Creative Nonfiction, her writing has been published in literary journals and anthologies. Her debut novel, Remembered (February 2019) is published by Little, Brown/Hachette Group’s Dialogue Books in the UK and will be published by Blackstone Publishing in the US (date forthcoming).
Winner of a Northern Writers Award in fiction (2017), Yvonne was shortlisted for the Words and Women Competition (2017) and the Sunderland University Waterstones SunStory Award in 2018 and awarded a Society of Author’s Foundation Grant for Remembered in 2018. She was commended for children’s writing in the Faber Andlyn BAME (FAB) Prize (2017). Yvonne has six non-fiction children’s titles forthcoming with Penguin Random House.
Yvonne is represented by the Elise Dillsworth agency and holds an MA in Writing (Dual Concentration fiction and nonfiction) from Johns Hopkins University and a Creative Writing PhD from Lancaster University. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing and Creative Industries at Sheffield Hallam University. Yvonne is a creative producer, writer, and is co-founder and co-Director of North West Literary Arts. Her aim is to increase diversity in publishing and to take over the world, one story at a time.
Release date: 7 February 2019
You can read more about Yvonne’s work on her website or follow her on Twitter.